Anne M. Ridley

Perceived credibility and eyewitness testimony of children with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND Although children with intellectual disabilities (ID) often provide accurate witness testimony, jurors tend to perceive their witness statements to be inherently unreliable. METHOD The current study explored the free recall transcripts of child witnesses with ID who had watched a video clip, relative to those of typically developing (TD) age-matched children, and assessed how mock jurors perceived these transcripts in the absence of knowledge of group (ID or TD) membership. A further aim of this research was to determine whether perceptions of credibility were associated with levels of free recall and witness characteristics (anxiety and mental age). RESULTS Mock jurors rated the testimony of children with ID as less credible than that of a TD age-matched comparison group. This was largely because of the transcripts of the children with ID containing fewer details than those of the TD children. Anxiety and mental age were found to have no effect on perceived levels of credibility. CONCLUSIONS It appears that even in the absence of knowledge of whether a child does or does not have ID, this factor still affects perceptions of credibility among mock jurors. Our findings suggest that fundamental differences in the quality of the witness transcripts lead to lower perceptions of credibility for children with ID.

Suggestibility and state anxiety: How the two concepts relate in a source identification paradigm

Source identification tests provide a stringent method for testing the suggestibility of memory because they reduce response bias and experimental demand characteristics. Using the techniques and materials of Maria Zaragoza and her colleagues, we investigated how state anxiety affects the ability of undergraduates to identify correctly the source of misleading post-event information. The results showed that individuals high in state anxiety were less likely to make source misattributions of misleading information, indicating lower levels of suggestibility. This effect was strengthened when forgotten or non-recognised misleading items (for which a source identification task is not possible) were excluded from the analysis. Confidence in the correct attribution of misleading post-event information to its source was significantly less than confidence in source misattributions. Participants who were high in state anxiety tended to be less confident than those lower in state anxiety when they correctly identified the source of both misleading post-event information and non-misled items. The implications of these findings are discussed, drawing on the literature on anxiety and cognition as well as suggestibility.

Suggestibility in legal contexts : psychological research and forensic implications

Contributors ix Series Preface xi Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv 1 Suggestibility: A History and Introduction 1 Anne M. Ridley 2 The Misinformation Effect: Past Research and Recent Advances 21 Quin M. Chrobak and Maria S. Zaragoza 3 Interrogative Suggestibility and Compliance 45 Gisli H. Gudjonsson 4 Suggestibility and Memory Conformity 63 Fiona Gabbert and Lorraine Hope 5 Suggestibility and Individual Differences: Psychosocial and Memory Measures 85 Anne M. Ridley and Gisli H. Gudjonsson 6 Recovered Memories and Suggestibility for Entire Events 107 James Ost 7 Suggestibility and Individual Differences in Typically Developing and Intellectually Disabled Children 129 Kamala London, Lucy A. Henry, Travis Conradt and Ryan Corser 8 Suggestibility in Vulnerable Groups: Witnesses with Intellectual Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Older People 149 Katie L. Maras and Rachel Wilcock 9 Acute Suggestibility in Police Interrogation: Self-regulation Failure as a Primary Mechanism of Vulnerability 171 Deborah Davis and Richard A. Leo 10 Suggestibility and Witness Interviewing using the Cognitive Interview and NICHD Protocol 197 David J. La Rooy, Deirdre Brown and Michael E. Lamb 11 Suggestibility in Legal Contexts: What Do We Know? 217 Anne M. Ridley, Fiona Gabbert and David J. La Rooy Index 229

Bicyclist fatalities involving heavy goods vehicles: gender differences in risk perception, behavioral choices, and training.

Objectives: Females are typically involved in fewer collisions when pedal cycling than males. However, female cyclists appear to be overrepresented in the number of fatal collisions involving heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). These collisions often involve cyclists passing HGVs on the side furthest from the HGV driver (nearside). It is hypothesized that this pattern of fatalities may be partly due to differences in how males and females perceive the risk associated with various cycling maneuvers. It is also hypothesized that this difference may be overcome with advanced training. Methods: 4,596 UK cyclists completed an online questionnaire in which they reported their level of cycle training and rated the risk they perceived to be associated with various cycling maneuvers, the likelihood that they would engage in them, and history of collision involvement. Results: Females perceived a slightly greater level of risk to be associated with cycling. However, males differentiated between the risks involved in nearside and offside overtaking to a greater extent than females. Risk perception was significantly correlated with the reported likelihood that participants would engage in risky maneuvers such as overtaking on the nearside and also with past collision prevalence. Advanced cycling training was correlated with higher levels of perceived risk associated with overtaking on the nearside; however, basic cycle training was not. Conclusions: Cyclists who do not correctly differentiate between the risks associated with nearside and offside overtaking may be more at risk of being involved in HGV-related collisions. Advanced cycling training is linked to more accurate risk perception. To reduce fatalities, public awareness campaigns should focus on the increased risk of nearside overtaking and encourage cyclists to take advanced training.

Alcohol-induced retrograde facilitation renders witnesses of crime less suggestible to misinformation.

RationaleResearch has shown that alcohol can have both detrimental and facilitating effects on memory: intoxication can lead to poor memory for information encoded after alcohol consumption (anterograde amnesia) and may improve memory for information encoded before consumption (retrograde facilitation). This study examined whether alcohol consumed after witnessing a crime can render individuals less vulnerable to misleading post-event information (misinformation).MethodParticipants watched a simulated crime video. Thereafter, one third of participants expected and received alcohol (alcohol group), one third did not expect but received alcohol (reverse placebo), and one third did not expect nor receive alcohol (control). After alcohol consumption, participants were exposed to misinformation embedded in a written narrative about the crime. The following day, participants completed a cued-recall questionnaire about the event.ResultsControl participants were more likely to report misinformation compared to the alcohol and reverse placebo group.ConclusionThe findings suggest that we may oversimplify the effect alcohol has on suggestibility and that sometimes alcohol can have beneficial effects on eyewitness memory by protecting against misleading post-event information.

First-year undergraduate induction: Who attends and how important is induction for first year attainment?

Abstract The first year of study in higher education is a time of major transition for students. While the importance of induction has been widely demonstrated, there is evidence to suggest that not all students benefit equally from participation in induction. This study examined attendance rates at induction, the relationship between induction attendance and first-year attainment and, finally, whether this relationship differed as a function of demographic factors, entry qualifications and the number of credits attempted. Data from students enrolled in the first year of full-time undergraduate study in a UK metropolitan institution of higher education in 2011–12 was collected from an internal cross-sectional survey and from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. Results showed that attendance at induction differed as a function of a number of demographic characteristics. In line with and extending previous research, ethnicity and previous entry qualifications predicted unique variance in attainment, as did the number of credits attempted and attendance at induction. The attainment gap related to attendance at induction was greater for students who attempted fewer than 120 credits. Overall, the results emphasise the importance of attendance at induction and the need for early engagement with new students, which may be particularly beneficial to those unable to attend induction.